The Science Bucket

Saving for a new stick of RAM, I've only got 4GB now.

I could never get the stock docking tutorial anywhere near the target ship. This video really helped me understand all that goes on. I watched it a couple of times and then built my own ship with waaaaaaay too much fuel and RCS to allow for a lot of first time mistakes. I get into orbit without using barely any fuel from my 2nd stage rescue capsule and have a ton of RCS for close in maneuvers. I'm up to five rescued Kerbals now and getting better/more efficient with every rescue. Just build your own ship and keep practicing!

My first rescue! ... that lead to Valentina and Halton dying in a fiery crash when I realized I had put a on drogue chute on instead of a real one.

Got a very ugly but contract-fullfilling station out to Minmus orbit... then I noticed not all of the check marks were green. I forgot the docking port. I'm kind of glad I goofed because I'd like to send out a more elegant design.

FINALLY GOT RENDEZVOUS!!! It all makes sense now! Show screen of two ships just meters apart to girlfriend: That's nice honey.

Orbited my first space station! But not before sending it up first without a contractually required antenna.

I got it! Was going to leave it alone for a few days but last night I did a few tourist contracts and then checked in on my lonely Minmus machine. All the needs were checked off except for the orbital circumference. A few tiny, tiny burns here and there and everything clicked. YES! Spent that money on a new R&D facility.

Yeah it's a synchronous contract and right now I've been holding at the required orbit. Wasn't sure if prograde or retro would be the correct answer or just try to wait it out. Thanks for the detailed answers. That really helps my understanding of what movements affect my placement in orbit. Engine is a LV-909 so it's been pretty easy to make fine adjustments.

Cool thank you. I'll keep trying.

I'm still learning the finer points of orbital maneuvers and I accepted a satellite contract out at Minmus that required the vehicle be in line-of-site with a ground station on the moon. I got out there, got inclination, AP and PE correct and I'm just out of line-of-sight range of the dish on the ground. I know Minmus spins pretty rapidly, should I just fast forward a few orbits until that base comes in sight and wait my ten seconds? Or should I mess with my AP or PE to speed up or slow down the orbit? I'm perfectly circular now, dead on the contractual orbit so I don't really want to deviate from that. Any maneuvers I make cause my orbit to become out of round. Then I waste gas trying to make a bunch of tiny 1 second burns. Can I point directly at (or away from) the pink target marker and retain my circular orbit by thrusting straight out or in from Minmus... sort of like during a rendezvous? I've only got about 25-30% fuel in the tanks and don't want to waste it by taking 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. I'd like to nail this as it's a $240K payoff. Thoughts? Thanks!

Orbital rendezvous, 50k away, out of fuel. Orbital rendezvous, 20k away, out of fuel. Orbital rendezvous, 15k away, out of fuel. I hate orbital rendezvous.

Picked up two satellite contracts. Finished one and maneuvered to the new polar orbit only to notice it needed to be retrograde.

This is great to hear, congrats to you! On a smaller scale, KSP has been an influence for me too. Two weeks ago I lost my job, three days before that I had decided to quit and go back to school for airframe and powerplant certs (I've been in graphic design for 15 years). I've always loved aviation and messing around in KSP has helped me decide on flight as a career.

If something cool happens in real life, me and the Mrs. say "AAAWWRAAGHT" to each other like Gene.

After a good four hours, I like 1.0 a bunch. At first I was thrown by the new aerodynamics then after two flights I figured it out that we can't do the 'crank it over to 45 degrees at 10K" thing anymore. On those flights I just cut the power, waited until the craft spun upright, then slowly added power back and ta da... orbit! - I'm liking the auto-contracts. - new tech tree is cool - the little half-size solid booster is neat - seems to be more money coming in while doing the basic startup grind. I've updated some buildings a lot faster than I remember from .90 - Super cool seeing the exhaust flow out the bottom vents on the pad now! Also, didn't have to spend any 'real' money to download the update! Sweet, thanks Squad! The only very minor complaint is not being able to unlock large fuel tanks immediately. Ok, I'll stack eight small tanks together and still get to orbit.